The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is going through a period of changes, marked by the definitive exit of three member countries and the creation of a special tribunal to judge crimes committed during the dictatorship in Gambia.
January 29, 2025 will mark the end of the membership of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso in ECOWAS. The decision was made official during the summit of the organization’s heads of state held in Abuja. According to the provisions of Article 91 of the ECOWAS Treaty, a six-month transition period was granted that will end on July 30, 2025, the date on which the exit will become definitive, unless the three countries could change their minds about the issue.
During this time, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray, will be responsible for managing the situation of contractual employees originating from these States and the transfer of Community agencies based in the three countries. Despite the exit, Senegal and Togo will continue to carry out mediation with the governments of these Saharan States, keeping the door open to dialogue.
This decision comes after months of tensions between ECOWAS and the military juntas governing the three countries, which seem to have imposed their own pace, imposing conditions. For ECOWAS, which had already managed a similar case with the exit of Mauritania in 2000, this is an unprecedented challenge.
At the same time, the summit sanctioned the creation of a special tribunal to judge the crimes committed during the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh in Gambia (1994-2017). This decision has been described as “historic” .
Serious crimes were committed during the regime of Yahya Jammeh, now a refugee in Equatorial Guinea, including mass executions, torture, enforced disappearances and sexual violence.
The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission, established in 2018 in Gambia, had already collected testimonies and made recommendations to proceed against 70 people involved in crimes, including the dictator himself.
Gambian President Adama Barrow expressed gratitude for this decision that promises to ensure justice for the regime’s victims. Despite the absence of an extradition agreement between Equatorial Guinea and Gambia, international pressure could push for the handing over of Yahya Jammeh for trial.
During the summit, the President of Nigeria and ECOWAS, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stressed the importance of preserving unity and solidarity among the members of the organization. Tinubu paid tribute to the outgoing President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, celebrating him as a champion of democracy.
These developments reflect the complexity of the challenges that ECOWAS has to face: on the one hand, managing an unprecedented transition with the exit of three Member States; on the other promoting justice and stability in the region, as demonstrated by the establishment of the Special Court for Gambia.
